Colors! v1.06

Colors! v1.06 is now released.

Colors! is a simplistic digital application for Nintendo DS based on modern painting-techniques developed for drawing tablets in programs like Photoshop. By taking advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the DS touch-screen it becomes a perfect portable digital sketch-book.

Current features
——————-
Hard and soft circular brush
Pressure-sensitivity can affect opacity and brush-size
512×384 image resolution with 2 stage zoom
Replay the whole painting process of an image
Hue-circle and luminance and saturation-triangle style palette
Load and Save to memory card
Send painting as e-mail using Wi-Fi

Major updates in v1.06
————————–
Major precision overhaul
Opacity slider in brush-screen
Pressure-Controls-Size option in brush-screen
New user-interface with graphics by madwurmz.com
Playback controls with the option to continue painting from mid-playback
The possibility to send your painting directly to an e-mail address
Unlimited save slots
One additional zoom-level

Available at http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors

Enjoy!

317 thoughts on “Colors! v1.06

  1. As mentioned by almost every user here, thanks for making such a sweet app for the DS! The simplicity and precision are something that every developer should strive for when making such a pure tool to use.

    While I do love the simplicity, I would like to see more shortcuts available with the extra buttons. I realize that this was set up as an ambidextrous tool but I could see some shortcuts really fleshing out the interface for ease of use.(As if it’s not easy to use :) Here are my suggestions that were inspired by your brilliant program:

    1. Have a “lefty/righty” setting in there somewhere that would free up the 5 opposing buttons which aren’t used when either hand is used. Something like increasing/decreasing brush sizes or opacity incrementally or even just toggling the pressure sensitivity on/off.

    2. I’m pretty sure that this was mentioned too, but different brush shapes could really be useful in more ways than one. Basic shapes like square, triangle, and circle could easily be stamped out and can also make for more unique brush strokes as desired.

    3. Also saw this mentioned above, and I know there are ways around it within the program, but it would be nice to have a small custom pallet where your common colors could easily be accessed so you wouldn’t have them painted off in the corner of your canvas.

    Just ideas and suggestions. With or without them though, this program stands alone on the DS and is unrivaled. Funny thing about when I found your program. I had just recently been bitching about the lack of a “Mario Paint” game for Wii and DS so this fit right into that void and is likely even better than what Nintendo themselves would have released.

    Thanks again and keep up the good work.
    I look forward to updated versions of Colors!

  2. I’am really suprised about colors. Sometimes I thougth, why I need Photoshop CS xD. What some guys can draw is amazing, so that I think, that can’t be possible.
    All the guys who draw great pics and these one who develope this great Homebrew, keep work ;)

  3. An Undo would be great, even a layer system with only 3 layers would be more than enough. The option to save a few preset brush setups would be fantastic, since i find myself constantly going through a few brush setups again and again and again…

    still, even with its current list of fantastic features, its an awesome app. Keep up the good work! :D

  4. Will there be a way to have lefty/righty settings.
    Undo & redo please <3
    Layers.

    Also making the reply movies into a gif :D that would be AMAZING!!!

  5. Kudos for the great program! I am picky about my homebrew (out of necessity – can’t afford a new SD chip right now so I’m stuck with the 128mb that came with my flash card), but I have collected a small handful of great pieces of software. I use Colors! more than anything else (my commercial games are starting to resent the layer of dust they have collected). All I could possibly ask for is a couple other brush shapes – square and four versions of a bar shape (vertical ‘|’, horizontal ‘–‘, and angles each way ie ‘\’ and ‘/’). Maybe a customisable stamp setup? Pixel art to design the shape of the brush would allow for any imaginable shape… but I can’t complain by any means, the program could already be considered complete as-is.

    One other idea that could be useful with any brush that isn’t round – angled brushes that rotate according to the direction of the stroke (as if you were dragging from one end, the rest trails behind). I don’t know if I’m describing it correctly… I’m imagining a sort of caligraphy brush effect.

    It’s too bad the touch screen can’t read multiple touch points simultaneously – the kids love this program, but I only have one DS… and they’re a little too young (3 to 5 years) to understand sharing just yet. This is truly a program for all ages!

  6. This program is absolutely wonderful~ Thanks for creating it!
    I can’t wait to see future updates to it. I would be happy for an undo as long as it didn’t take away from the responsiveness of the program. I know DS memory limited and I’m really impressed what you’ve done with it.

  7. Thanks Bryan! Actually, I worked out how to load my own images just after posting, feel a bit foolish…

    Still, I would really like to see a simple layer tool. Even just two layers would do me fine – if there was the option to fade opacity on the layer (does that still count as simple?)

    ie, Like a lightbox. Rather than simply drawing over images, to be able to trace. The original could be faded down so that it could only be used as a rough guide – free the hand (quentin blake’s method ) – and leave an original to check your work against (up the opacity, did those lessons on anatomy pay off? Spot the novice drawer!)

    I can do this now if I go through photoshop first and load two images (original and faded) onto the DS, but I can’t compare to the original without saving and loading. Its kinda cumbersome, and of course, there are other advantages to simple layers.

    One thing I’ve found after using Colors! more – I’d like to be able to easily select plain white/black. I use white as an easy workaround for eraser/undo, but sometimes I find I’ve actually selected a very subtle tinge of blue for instance, rather than plain white. Can be irksome, particularly without an undo.

    Enough said, Colors is a brilliant tool, and the one program that has made a toy I couldn’t afford (the DS) belatedly justified :)

  8. i would suggest an idea. is it possible to add a “rough paper”. when we draw we are not sure about what will be the result with a color and a particular size or transparency of pen , so a rough paper would be appreciated to make some drafts or some prepared colors where we can choose more quickly

    thanks

  9. I think you should bring back the Colors! 1.05 (I think) look. I think it was a bit better looking than the 1.06. Also, I have a question, is colors known to have a problem with some SD cards? I just got a new 1gig SD card, and every time I try to use Colors! I get an error saying that something can’t be intialized (it’s not FAT, it’s something else.) I’ve patched it and everything and I’m using a Games N’ Music.

  10. Like everyone else, thanks so much for making this great app. I tried it at a friend’s house this weekend and was instantly hooked! I should have my own gear in and up and running by mid-week, so I’m pretty excited. I also think you should add a paypal donation button… And, along with everyone else, I thought I’d add a few suggestions (some of them already echo’d more than once)

    * a hold/fetch buffer that would hold the current image, as is, and then fetch from that. it would jack up the redraw process, though.
    * being able to re-configure the + buttons (or swap the up/down and side to side) — I’m constantly sampling colors and it’d be much more useful to me if that button was on the bottom, right by where my thumb naturally rests.
    * a grey value scale (from black to white, 10% increments) in the palette window
    * Size of the brush relative to zooming might be nice
    * one single layer, black only, that could be shown in “overlay” mode at the push of a button for a grid, an initial sketch, etc. (probably going nuts there). It wouldn’t be stored anywhere in the redraw process. If it wouldn’t require too much more memory, do a full color layer instead so people could keep paint swatches there as well.
    * it’d be great if one of the shoulder buttons flipped the image while you were holding it

  11. I love this program so much, it makes me want to be able to draw better, but when I try to send pics to my email I do not receive them. How long is it meant to take?

  12. I used to work for Metacreations, back where Painter was originally invented and conceived. I want to thank you for creating a program true to the original vision of painter– intuitive, powerful, small footprint, you guys did a great job. Compared to the nightmare Corel twisted painter into, it is refreshing to see something pure and beautiful like Colors, with very little standing between the artist and the digital medium. It’s fantastic to see that good old friend, the painter color wheel!!! Nice job.I’m so addicted to Colors that I will probably go through 2-3 NDS’s with it :) FYI I am using it on an NDS lite with Cyclos Evolution DS and a 4gb mini SD card, it works great! cmk@nanobrat.com

  13. Actually, before Metacreations it was Fractal. I miss those days!

    But if you know the program, Dabbler, it has a nice feature that might benefit Colors. Instead of having single image files, it had an “art pad” mechanism, where you press page-up and page-down to flip through your pad, and on each sheet you can paint.. flipping forward or backwards, you can see your previous work without having to do a save. You could export the art pad sheets as individual image files too. This would be very convenient with a program like Colors, because you could quickly flip back and forth between drawings, and press a key to add another sheet to the pad as you like. I think with Colors’ portability and being well suited to sketching, this would be a good thing!

    Also, a smudge tool like the old “Just Add Water” tool in early version of Painter/Dabbler would be brilliant.

    You rock
    pippilina

  14. Haven’t tried the program but it is such a great idea. If you are marketing this you should promote “your digital sketch book” as your tagline, it is perfect. Also I would work to enhance your logo and make it seem more professional.

  15. @Dylan Mallia: Sending to email is experimental feature and might not always work. Sorry for inconvenience. I bet Jens will work on this some more when he gets back from his journeys.

  16. i am using v1.06 on R4
    when my microsd left only few MB and tried to save an image
    it said fail but it still can show the image preview on the “Load” page

    repeat the save and error for few time and i restarted the ds
    the microsd became totally unreadable, on both DS and PC

    may be the program corrupted the FAT table when not enough space left ?

  17. WOW is in one word THE word to describe it. it is so awesome i would eat poop to aquire it. (oh noes here it comes) BUT i would like a line tool, i like making perspective drawings and its hard without straight lines. or like an line that always stays on top (like Adobe Illustrator). That would make it even more awesome for me

  18. Could you implement a sort of “smoothing” feature into the way it tracks the stylus? What I mean is, instead of having it immediately draw where it detects you pressing, have it track over about 3 frames, and then if there is an unnatural “jump” off to the side or something, that data can be ignored. This would prevent it from jerking off to the side.

  19. “This would prevent it from jerking off to the side.”
    This would prevent it from being responsive and fun too.

  20. Finally got wifi working, I guess your program might not support DHCP(i get it mixed up… DHCP or DCHP?)… Darn, it froze at email entry… v.v
    Well, at least the wifi works.

  21. Edit: It only connects when I use DSOrganize’s Chism Loader (Alot of my apps do that…) I’m using Max Media Dock (D:)… When I get to the email address input screen I have the keyboard, send and cancel, but nowhere to put the address and nothing responds, but the background animation is still gonig so I know it’s running… <.< I want a hi-res!

  22. “This would prevent it from being responsive and fun too.”
    Quoted for truth. I’m looking forward to using this program, so I can paint during my classes instead of paying attention. I just need to buy one of those DS card…things. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which one I should go for? (And/or where I should buy it from?) I’m not really into modding, so I’m a little lost, but I really want to give this program a go. =D

  23. Thank you for making Colors! I’m loving the current build. I’m looking forward to any future updates. Keep up the amazing work.

  24. Downloaded the app and was using in for a few mins (great app), when i went to save it froze my ds. i restarted and found that the r4 couldnt read from my micro sd, i stuck the micro sd into my computer and tried to read it, it said i had to format, losing all my files in the process i did, but when it finished i couldnt access my card again. i tried to formate it again but i wouldnt happen, i oen up the properties and it says there is 0mb used and 0mb free. so now i have a micro sd that is useless.

  25. How about putting the color picker and brush settings on the top screen as on option? That way it’s accessible directly without having to push a button every time you want to change a setting.

  26. I see the faq saying an undo is unlikely because of resources, but what about an undo feature that only stores say… 5 levels of undo? surely most of us will only use it to undo once at a time.

  27. Sorry for the silence on my part. I’ve been busy with other things. :)

    As usual, thanks so much for all the compliments and feedback. I’m currently not spending much time on Colors!, but I still plan future version. This means that I don’t have an ETA for you.

    Here’s a bulk-response for all the questions stacked up since my last comment.

    Undo – Next version will most likely contain an Undo, and it may be more than the one-step Undo I’ve mentioned earlier.

    Save time spent on a painting – I hope to have that in there as well.

    Rewind Or Forward during Playback – Can’t be done with the current approach, sorry.

    Send the drawings via Http/FTP/Name subect etc. – I hope to expand on the SendToEmail option to include other things as well, but that may take a while.

    I keep having problems with the “jump” line – It seems that some people have this problem. I’m not sure what more can be done to solve this, especially since it doens’t appear for me. If anyone want’s to donate a “bad” DS there may be something I can do.

    First, the ability to ‘quicksave’ the current state of a painting, and I’d suggest the creation of two modes: one that saves just the PNG and *.tmb file, and other that saves it with the *.drw aswell. – Saving the .drw usually only takes only a small portion of the time, so it wouldn’t be very quick.

    I would suggest an automatic numbering algorithm that could be reset – I’ve actually done a Storyboard version of Colors! that has this functionality. I’m not sure if I want to integrate this into the real version though. I’ll think about it.

    Additional features on the brush/palette screen – In general, I am having trouble visualizing more features on the brush/palette screen. Personally, I think it’s a bit too crowded and complicated as it is. There are many great feature-requests here and it’s something I need to take into account when redesigning it.

    Regarding the palette screen, I think an option to make it toggle would be appreciated. – I agree. I hope to do something like that.

    I’d like to be able to easily select plain white/black – Agreed.

    It would be easier to navigate the files menu if the shoulders were user to skip pages – Agreed.

    For that I would suggest an off-by-default ‘advanced mode’ – It’s possible that there will be a few options that can be turned on in the .xml config-file in future versions. That would allow me to implement “advanced” features without sacrificing simplicity or having to spend time on making them fit into the user-interface.

    Is or will the source code be available? – No, it’s not, but a number of people have been granted access to it. If you think you have what it takes to help out. Feel free to contact me about that.

    ability to load my own images for work in Colors – I hope to have something where you may load a reference image that you can try to replicate in future versions.

    Have a “lefty/righty” setting in there somewhere – I hope to have a button-configuration screen in future versions.

    is it possible to add a “rough paper” – It’s an interesting idea of having other backgrounds than plain white. I’ll definitly consider it.

    Size of the brush relative to zooming might be nice – We’ve been playing around with that. I’m not really sure what’s best.

    When I try to send pics to my email I do not receive them. – It’s may be caught in your (or your ISP’s) spam-filter. I hope to improve the mail-handling a bit to make this less likely.

    Instead of having single image files, it had an “art pad” mechanism – I like that idea, and I’ve been considering something like it. Not for the next version though.

    I guess your program might not support DHCP – As far as I know, it does. Colors! uses DSWifi for access-point communication, and DSWifi should not have a problem with DHCP.

    How about putting the color picker and brush settings on the top screen as on option? That way it’s accessible directly without having to push a button every time you want to change a setting. – Well, the top-screen is not touch-sensivity, so that wouldn’t work.

    I just need to buy one of those DS card…things. Does anyone have any recommendations as to which one I should go for? – Check http://colors.brombra.net/faq.php

    A lasso/marquee feature/line tool/simple layer function/different brush shapes/a smudge tool
    – Probably not. At least not for next version.

    Regarding saving corrupting your memory card – It’s sad to hear that some of you have experienced this problem. Colors! uses libfat for file-handling which relies on every flash-cart’s individual DLDI driver. Basically, that means that any corruption is most likely due to bad drivers from the flash-cart manefacturers and nothing I can do anything about. It seems though that it may be related to running out of space, so a work-around for some of the problems may be for me to refuse saving if you are running low on space.

    “I wish you the best of luck and inspiration on your algorithms.” – Best good luck line so far. Thanks. :)

  28. A few months down the line this program is still as fun in daily news as ever ;)
    I’ve noticed a very little thing:
    when you paint in zoom x2 or x4 ( can’t remember ),
    when u bring up the palette menu, the size of the brush you
    see is x1, which is misleading ;)

    This program still is impressing most drawing people I show it too, you should consider a paypal donation button!

  29. very great application.. Love It!!

    Is it possible to convert the playback file into a video file?

    tnx..

  30. I love colors! and look forward to your next version. Here’s my most important/basic wants for the next update:

    1. one step undo (it can be more of course but I just need one)

    2. a simple color pallet which you can pick 8 colors of your choice. I’m thinking 8 little squares or circles which start out as black and white as default.

    3. smuge tool (I don’t know if this tool is difficult or time consuming to make but I would really love this.)

    4. Way to get thru the pages of saved pictures faster. The LR buttons maybe?

    If the next version could have those things I would be set. :)
    Thanks for working on this program!

  31. I love the program. The only problem is how sometimes the cursor for the stylus will jump half way across the screen, and ruin one of my masterpieces.

  32. hey jens, im happy to see that the upcoming version has step backward/undo in it, it would also be so awesome if u could add layers into it, i make my living drawing in photoshop, and when im on my journey for inspiration i always draw my sketches in Colors when i see something nice :) its the best drawing app for the ds and i dont get why there isnt a official game like this, if u would add layers and undo u maybe can sell it to nintendo hahah, also 4 or 6 squares with selectible colors would be nice, thanks alot for making this , i use it every day

  33. oh and to valance, i had that too, but its our own faulth, u accedently touched the screen with your hand finger, so it sets a line to the other side of the screen, thats why a undo function would be very nice, greets

  34. oh and to valance, i had that too, but its our own faulth, u accedently touched the screen with your hand or finger, so it sets a line to the other side of the screen, thats why a undo function would be very nice, greets

  35. i love colors great program i just have one small request
    could you please move the flip image function to the choose color menu

    now i need to hit the start buttom to get there
    and i feel its not as userfriendly as it can be ……

  36. is it possible to in someway make a function/tool that can do straight lines

    possible a line tool
    or by holding down a button and putting down to dots…that then form a line

  37. “is it possible to in someway make a function/tool that can do straight lines

    possible a line tool
    or by holding down a button and putting down to dots…that then form a line”

    try with two pointer at the same time, you will have a straight line

  38. Hey, thanks for making this awesome programme. It’s by far my favourite Homebrew app, I actually like it more than most DS games.

    But when I tried to save when I had no space left my R4Ds got formatted, all my games/save files and stuff gone. Obviously it’s not your fault but I’d really appreciate it if you could add a feature that would not allow you to save if you don’t have enough space on your card.

    Thanks,

    Pat

  39. Wow. Just… wow. Like it, am working with it, hope to have amazing stuff soon.

    A feature idea which came to mind: cross-fade, selecting 2 different colors and using pressure to control the relative values of each. I’m willing to contribute to the effort with active to the source.

  40. First of all thanks you for making such an amazing application :D it’s definitely one of my favorite.

    I think everything works great but i had a question, do you think maybe in the next release the drawings can be a higher resolution? (maybe 800×600 or a bit less?) Would the ds allow that?

  41. This program is awesome! it has helped me to develop artistically greatly. my art always looks best when done using this program over pens, pencils, computers or anything. thank you!

  42. I would really like a undo feature, especially since my ds seem to have a bad case of drawing lines from where i stop a line to exactly the same spot on the right just off-screen. A simple key do do undo in such a case would be a thousand times better than having to redraw the part that that line ruined. A workaround to limit such lines would of course be greatly appreciated too.

  43. 1. I like the old menu’s placement of buttons. Having the credits in the load menu is silly.

    2. BUG : If the wifi fails to connect to the gallery, the touchscreen becomes (remains?) deactivated. Add a cancel button too.

    3. I liked being able to see the whole picture in 1.05 where in 1.06 the top screen is always white which feels like a waste.

    Thanks for this fantastic tool, and for digging through all these responses. I think you’ve got a winner here! :D

  44. I LOVE this app! It’s simply amazing! If i should suggest something it would be a color pallet.. a place where you can collect tones you make so you don’t have to try and make the same tones over and over when you want to correct something later on.

  45. Can you add a “kids mode” something that might simplify it a bit. Make it wasy enough for a 3-4 year old. Right now my kid uses pictochat to “draw” and that has problems of course but one of the things that would be good is a kids mode that maybe reduces the complexity and turns off some of the choices in the name of giving them a basic doodling tool. Ideally you choose kids mode and it goes into that mode and to get out you need to maybe press both flipper buttons at the top to exit making it hard for them to inadvertently exit the mode.

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